The invention relates to stackable containers and particularly stackable containers for transporting, storing, and displaying cans.
With respect to transportation and storage it is a main goal in the food industry to minimize the space requirements of the packaging unit in relation to the goods. A further important condition lies in that the packaging units are stackable, easy to handle and that the removal of the goods from the packaging units is possible in a simple manner. Depending on the kind of market, it often is desirable that the goods can be positioned on shelves, while still being contained in the packaging unit, so that the customer can remove the goods from the packaging unit. The latter is particularly the case in the so-called discount shops or in supermarkets as well as other hypermarkets.
Herein, problems arise in particular with respect to transportation and storage of cans for food and feeding stuff, since these cans in most cases are comparatively heavy and upon formation of larger packaging units by a number of cans, the weight resulting therefrom requires a stable packaging which generally again increases the packaging volume.
Up to now when packing cans, for example cans with nutrition or cans with cat or dog feeding stuff, mainly common cardboard packagings were used, which, however, had to be broken open for removing the goods and thus were not suitable for being directly positioned on shelves. For this reason, as packaging for cans, people started to use a cardboard container open on top, having a container bottom and four side walls for accommodating the cans and covered entirely with a shrink foil. Upon removal of the shrink foil, the open top cardboard box could then be positioned on shelves so that the customer could take the goods out of the cardboard container without difficulty. The disadvantage of this kind of packaging is that two different materials are used, namely cardboard and plastic shrink foil, and moreover that the cardboard box looses stability when it becomes humid. A further disadvantage is that the cardboard packages as a rule cannot be reused, and like the shrink foil wastes have to be forwarded to a separate disposal. This is disadvantageous for environmental reasons.